Perforated brick walls and planted courtyards characterise Terracotta Breath, a multi-generational “home that breathes” in Vietnam, designed by architecture practice Live Out Studio.
Located on a narrow plot in Da Nang, the house contains two residences – one for the family’s parents and another for their daughter – separated by a narrow courtyard that provides natural light and ventilation.
Live Out Studio has completed a multi-generational dwelling in Vietnam
As its name suggests, Terracotta Breath is defined by a reddish-brown material palette, from the perforated brick and clay-rendered walls of the exterior to the tiled bathrooms and rendered staircase of the interiors.
“The idea was to imagine a home that does more than shelter, a home that breathes, softly and continuously, through light, air, and the warmth of local materials,” Live Out Studio co-founder Van Tan Quyen Le told Dezeen.
It comprises two houses separated by a narrow courtyard
“From the beginning, the design embraced a single, harmonious material palette – clay-toned corrugated roof, handcrafted brick façades, bamboo shade, clay-rendered walls, and brick garden paving,” Quyen added.
“Woven together like an earthy carpet flowing seamlessly from inside to out, this continuity allows the home to settle naturally into its setting, as if grown from the ground itself.”
Terracotta is the dominant colour throughout the project
Le describes the organisation of the conjoined homes as a “delicate puzzle”, with each having its own individual needs and feng shui orientation.
Each home’s living, kitchen and dining space occupies the ground floor, organised around two staircases – one at the front finished in timber and clay plaster and one at the rear in folded, painted steel.
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The parents’ living room opens onto an entrance yard shaded by a bamboo canopy, while the daughter’s overlooks the central courtyard through folding, timber-framed windows above a built-in bench.
Terracotta Breath’s perforated brick facade forms a double-skin for a ceremonial hall on the first floor of the parents’ home. Here, a small balcony is sandwiched between the brick and sliding glass windows, allowing for natural ventilation to be mediated.
The ground floor spaces are organised around two staircases
“These operable elements enable the architecture to respond continuously to changing conditions, creating shifting patterns of light and gentle airflow throughout the day,” co-founder Thi Anh Nguyet Tran told Dezeen.
“This facade becomes the project’s signature moment: a distinctive yet humble interface between the home, its occupants, and the surrounding laneway, quietly demonstrating how local materials and craftsmanship can shape a living, breathing architecture,” she added.
Light-coloured walls and wooden floors are used on the upper floor
The bedroom areas are finished in more neutral pale plaster, while the bathroom and kitchen spaces feature small terracotta tiles, with the whole interior unified by pale tiled floors on the ground floors and wooden floors above.
Other homes in Vietnam recently featured on Dezeen include Kho Rèn House in Hue by M+TRO Studio, which is also sheltered by a facade of perforated brickwork, and the Earthenware House, which Naqi & Partners designed as a row of terracotta pots.
The photography is by Live Out Studio.
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